New look planned for Cardiff’s Callaghan Square

PLANS for a redesign of the landmark square linking Cardiff’s city centre and the Bay are being drawn up.

PLANS for a redesign of the landmark square linking Cardiff’s city centre and the Bay are being drawn up.

City council officers are working with developers to redraw the map of Callaghan Square as planned when the business development was initially created by the Cardiff Bay Development Corporation.

Draft plans that have been sent to the Design Commission for Wales propose that one of the two main carriageways around the roundabout could be removed and the square expanded.

A new, larger railway bridge could also be built to alleviate traffic congestion heading from the square towards Lloyd George Avenue and improve the connections between the city centre and Cardiff Bay.

In the draft design brief, officers said that current and anticipated traffic flows had made the completion of the square in line with the original 1998 plan “a priority for the council”.

Planning applications are already progressing through the council’s system for office developments that would enclose the square to the south and to the east.

Officers wrote: “While it is recognised that development aspirations for the square have moved on since 1998, the main development concept of the square and avenue still remains; that there is a need to secure a comprehensive solution for the whole of the square and avenue as proposed in the original permission.”

Under the terms of the original Cardiff Bay Development Corporation agreements, the Welsh Assembly Government has a legal obligation to oversee the completion of the square although several deadlines for the obligations to be fulfilled havepassed.

The original plans for Callaghan Square were drawn up in the hope the heavy railway to Cardiff Bay could be removed and replaced with a light railway and a grand avenue linking the city and the Bay, although this vision has now been dropped.

In their brief, council officers wrote that the square was “the most desirable” office location in the city.

They wrote: “Callaghan Square continues to attract the highest office rents in the city.

“The St David’s 2 development is shifting the retail gravity of the city southward confirming the square as the most desirable and sustainable office location in the capital.”

Among the companies occupying the first Nicholas Hare-designed office buildings are Eversheds, Allied Irish Bank and ING Direct.

The Design Commission for Wales “strongly supported” the plans to close the northern road around the square by Eversheds.

“This will create the possibility of a smaller, more intimate and inherently attractive public open space, the vibrancy of which should be ensured with active uses,” the panel said.

“With regard to the proposed new bridge, the panel agreed this was a key piece of infrastructure which could release development opportunities to the east of the square and along Lloyd George Avenue.”

WalesOnline is part of Media Wales, publisher of the Western Mail, South Wales Echo, Wales on Sunday and the seven Celtic weekly titles, offering you unique access to our audience across Wales online and in print.